Is This The Greatest (and Weirdest) Star Wars Photo Shoot Of All Time?

Writer-at-large. Bad jokes aplenty. Can be gently prodded on Twitter at @kitsb1

Now, full disclosure: When it comes to Star Wars, my sheer, unadulterated love for the thing is both widely known and not especially well-managed. When it comes to that galaxy far, far away, I am completely biased, totally partisan, and borderline obsessed. Put simply: I love it way more than is strictly speaking sensible.

I tell you this, because when I say to you that what lies below is the greatest, weirdest, strangest, and most completely unhinged Star Wars related photo shoot that I've ever seen, it's important that you know I really, really mean it.

What comes next, you see, isn't just your run of the mill photo shoot to support the release of a new movie. This is Rolling Stone's 1983 Summer Double Issue, with its extended Star Wars coverage.

And things are about to get weird.

Yup, exactly that sort of weird.

Now, Star Wars Rolling Stone covers had been kind of weird before, and they'd be kind of weird again...

...but this shoot? Well, this shoot took it to a whole other level.

Photographer Aaron Rapoport took Carrie Fisher to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California, and with the help of several co-stars, created a thing of wild, perfect, completely bewildering beauty.

Featuring:

Princess Leia, in Her Gold Bikini, Hanging Out With a Beach Ball

While staring at us with the intensity of a thousand suns.

Princess Leia, Still in the Bikini, Playfully Building a Sandcastle

Either that, or she's just buried Han in the sand...

Princess Leia Hanging Out With Darth Vader, a Gamorrean Guard, and an Ewok

Despite that making ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.

Princess Leia and Her New Gang Getting Moody

With the Ewok's blank, lifeless eyes being my favorite touch.

Princess Leia and Her Gang Partying Hard

Because OF COURSE Darth Vader brought a boom box. Nobody parties as hard as Darth.

Also, that particular Gamorrean Guard (lets call him Gartogg) is clearly an experienced Inter-galactic Beach Ball player - just look at his pose...

The two best pictures (possibly ever) are still to come, though...

Princess Leia Gets Ridiculously Sexual

Darth Vader and Leia Get... Close

Which is incredibly weird all by itself, but when you remember that this was released in the same summer as Return of the Jedi - meaning someone who knew the twist that they were father and daughter must have approved this shot - it's all the more magnificent.

And... now I'm going to go away and grin like an idiot for an hour or two.